Now that the election is over, perhaps we can move forward. A few things of interest:
Global warming: Bloomberg Businessweek’s cover for the November 5-11 issue had the bold title, “It’s Global Warming, Stupid.” This is of course reminiscent of the Clinton campaign slogan of the 1992 election against George Bush, Sr., “It’s the economy, stupid.” I don’t think we can honestly say that hurricane Sandy was caused or worsened by global warming. I’m not sure we can say that global warming is caused, or even exacerbated to a measurable degree (no pun intended), by mankind. Heck, it may even be part of a natural cycle. In a debate about this with a friend, my stance was that even if we cannot know these things, we should do what we can to not make global warming worse. Yes, it may be a natural cycle, but since when does something being ‘natural’ make it good? Hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes are natural. Hemlock, cancer and death are too! The ice age was part of a natural cycle, but I’ll bet it was no fun for the humans that had to live through it. Let’s all assume that, at the very least, we don’t want to make a bad situation worse and start doing what we can to ease our impact on the Earth. Currently, there’s only one other place we can live, and the International Space Station just isn’t roomy enough for us all.
Politicians (and their related news organizations): Can we stop slamming anything done by the other political party? Conservatives were so bent on criticizing everything done by the Obama administration that arguably good things, like the development of the Chevy Volt and loan guarantees to Tesla Motors
were attacked. Solar energy is in an early stage of adoption. Yes, it’s going to be expensive for a little while longer, but some people are going to adopt it. Some companies, like Apple and Duke Energy already are to a big degree. Perhaps the government should consider if having energy generated by individuals, rather than just by corporations might be a good thing. If so, perhaps government investment or subsidies may be a good idea. How about wind energy? How about electric vehicles? Hydrogen vehicles? Natural gas vehicles? Potable water is becoming an endangered resource. Perhaps we should start looking at ways of conserving water as well as ways to economically extract drinkable water from the oceans. This is not a resource we need to go to war over. Let’s put aside the old way of 
‘might makes right’ and cooperate to solve this before it becomes critical to the survival of mankind. Part of governing is social engineering. We, as a people, believe that home ownership and capital investment are good for our society, so our government has given income tax breaks for mortgage interest and capital gains. We don’t think about this being odd at all, but it is a form of social engineering. Subsidizing gasoline is another form of social engineering. We wanted our people to be able to move around relatively freely, so we’ve kept the price of gasoline artificially low. I know that itmay seem hard to believe that gas prices are low, but go driving in Europe sometime. We cannot remove the subsidies, at this point, without damaging our delicate economy. 
What we can do though, is to start discussing phasing out the subsidies over time. Give the public plenty of notice and we’ll see interest in non-gasoline powered vehicles skyrocket. As we all know, the more we manufacture something, the better we get at it, and the less expensive it becomes. I’m old enough to remember when portable electronic calculators got their start. If you look at NASA footage from the Apollo program, you’ll see engineers whipping out slide rules when needing to perform a quick calculation. A calculator capable of only five functions, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and square root cost $150 in 1972 (that’s early-1970’s dollars, MUCH more in today’s dollars). However, people bought them, they became more and more popular and, for over ten years, companies have given away calculators of similar capability, as gifts to their customers! We will make electric vehicles that have greater range and are much less expensive than today’s, as we ramp up production.
Let’s realize the importance of our education system. From our schools will come the cure for disease, food for all, alternative energy sources, medical professionals we will all need sooner or later, and yes, even politicians to lead us (or mislead us…). The better educated these people are, the better all of our lives will be. I pray, should I need heart surgery, that the doctor
opening me up will have had the best education we could possibly provide. The same goes for the engineers designing an airplane, on which I may be a passenger, or a bridge I have to drive across every day. We must remove politics from our educational system. Regardless of our personal beliefs, we must teach what mankind has learned through scientific discovery. If you want to make sure your children believe what the Bible says, that’s what your church is for. We must also have the best qualified people teaching the next generation. Just like with everything else, “you get what you pay for.” We will attract the best teachers when we pay them what their job is worth to our society. Of course, paying a premium also means we should expect results.
How about a little truth in advertising? We just got through watching politicians lie to us, get caught in their lies, and continue to lie about the very same things! We see the phrase “clean coal” on television quite often. We see advertisements state that the way to energy independence for our country is to drill in more places. Those of opposing views say both are lies. I understand that those with economic ties to those industries may feel threatened by a move away from those energy sources. Why not lead the way? I know we’re all basically lazy, but the writing’s on the wall. If you see you’re income is based on a resource that is dwindling or is a detriment to the health of human beings, or an incentive to international struggle, prepare for the inevitable! Instead of digging in your heels, fighting the future by buying politicians and advertising, look for the solution. Yes, it will be hard work and expensive but the rewards to the organization/persons who find the way will be vast. We’re adults. Tell us the truth and you may be surprised how we can support your efforts. My family started buying wind-generated electricity when it was priced at a premium. Many other families did as well. The providers built additional wind generation capacity and the price has come down.
Finally, let’s have some decency in our public discourse. Just because we don’t agree on everything, it doesn’t mean either of us are idiots or unpatriotic. Accept that it’s possible that someone may have more information on a topic than you do (or less). I promise to do the same. If we have an honest discussion and you 
and I show each other what we’ve learned, one of us may be persuaded to change our minds and our actions. We’re truly all in this together. We all want to keep things going and to prevent any major collapse of society. Whether we’re talking about a school district, a city, a state, country, continent or planet, we’re all in this together. We sink or swim together. If we keep that in mind, maybe we can find our way back to respectful social interaction.
